( 1 ) THE petitioner joined the service of respondent Bank of India as Clerk/typist in the Zonal office at Andhra on 25. 11. 1971. Thereafter, he was promoted as Officer on 15. 10. 1986 and transferred to Gujarat Zone. Between October 1986 to July 1989 he was posted as an Officer in Delhi Chakla branch of the respondent Bank. Thereafter he was transferred to Pisawada Branch as Branch Manager (Rural posting) where he took over charge as Branch Manager on 10. 7. 1989. He was served with the charge sheet for various misconduct shown in Annexure : B collectively, which are as under : (I) Fraudulent misappropriation of banks funds on various occasions to the tune of Rs. 16,200/- for personal pecuniary benefit and thereby had utilized Banks funds to the detriment of the interest of the Respondent Bank and to cover up the acts and omissions of the petitioner for the misconduct and dereliction of duties, the petitioner had tampered with the Respondent banks documents and had also managed to destroy and/or misplace the relevant negotiable instrument and documents so as not to effect the relevant debits and/or entries thereof on the debits of accounts of the petitioner. (II) Flouting the banks norms and adopting illegal process of the procedure in sending cheque dated 28. 4. 90 for Rs. 10,000/- drawn by one Shri Madanlal Saluja on the respondent Bank, New Cloth market Branch in favour of the petitioner under Debit Note No. 13179 and thereafter withdrawing the said funds on 28. 4. 90 which has resulted into unlawful pecuniary gain to the petitioner and causing unlawful loss to the Respondent Bank in terms of cost and which was otherwise not permitted in banking practice; (III) The petitioner has acted in unlawful manner and has abused his official position as the Branch Manager of Pisawada Branch for his own pecuniary gain by drawing on unauthorized advance of Rs. 1000/- on 6. 4. 90 from the Pisawada Branch Suspense Account. The unauthorized advance was detailed to have been for the purpose of purchase of certain items from the market. However, the items valued at Rs. 290 on 28. 4. 90 has been purchased by the petitioner and thus the petitioner had unlawfully without any authority has retained the amount for about 21 days before any actual purchase has been effected out of the withdrawal of amount under the Suspense Account. The petitioner even then after retained the balance amount without accounting in the Suspense Account upto 20. 6. 91. The practice of this kind of transaction is not permitted in banking system even by their employees. The petitioner had caused irreparable loss and the loss of confidence of the superiors by misappropriation of Banks fund in this manner. (IV) Drawing advance amount of Rs. 800/- from Pisawada branch profit and Loss Account for the purpose of travelling expenses for inspections of advance accounts, the petitioner not carried out any such inspections and instead of that without any authority with a view to abuse his official position causing irreparable loss to the reputation of the bank had retained the amount of Rs. 800/- for the period from 20. 4. 90 to 20. 6. 90. The petitioner was called upon to give his explanation within 15 days. He filed reply dated 4. 10. 1990 (Annexure : C) admitting the charges, including the charge of temporary mis-appropriation of Rs. 16,200/ -.

( 2 ) IN view of the admission made by the petitioner in his Reply, the respondent Bank by order at Annexure :d removed him from service in view of gravity of the charges which were admitted by the petitioner in his reply at Annexure : C. This impugned order of removal has been challenged by the petitioner in this petition in 1990.

( 3 ) INITIALLY, Notice was ordered to be issued on 12. 3. 1991 to the respondent Bank. It was made returnable on 27. 3. 1991. Thereafter, from time to time the matter was adjourned before different Honble Judges of this Court and ultimately on 24. 7. 1992 N. J. Pandya, J. (as he then was)